


Reduced Sentences

by AnonEhouse



Series: Battling Coronavirus (varied fandoms) [18]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies)
Genre: COVID-19, Coronavirus social distancing, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23651947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: Scott Lang worries about the prisoners at San Quentin. It's crowded, and he doubts the government is going to turn them all loose.If only they could at least practice social distancing! But how to do that with two prisoners in each cramped cell?
Series: Battling Coronavirus (varied fandoms) [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676572
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	Reduced Sentences

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

Scott would be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous. Staring at the gates of San Quentin from the outside was one thing, but voluntarily walking in was another.

Luis looked at him sympathetically. "Hey, man, you know, you don't have to do this."

"Yeah. Yeah. I don't have to." Scott scrubbed at his hair and then his face above his cloth face mask, one Cassie had made for him. It had beetles on it because she couldn't find a cotton print with ants. "Oh, shit. I touched my face."

"It's cool, man. I've got these, like wipes..." He pulled out a box with a cartoon drawing of a puppy and kitten on the front. "Here you go, I got you covered."

Scott looked at Luis. "Is that, like the kind you wipe pets' butts with?"

"Sorta, but I poured vodka over it! 140 proof, that'll kill anything! It almost killed me when I drank some."

Scott winced, but took the wipe and cleaned his face and hands. Then he sighed. "I can't not do it. Just think of Peachy."

"Peachy's tough, he can take care of himself."

Scott went on to say, "Peachy crammed in a cell with some other guy. Who is breathing Peachy's air."

"Yeah, ok, I see your point. Social spacing is really hard to do when the cell's only eight feet long." Luis looked thoughtful. "You think Peachy would kill a guy to keep him from breathing on him?"

"Nah." Scott paused. "Probably not." Scott grabbed another wipe and opened the truck door. "I've got an appointment to talk to the warden." He picked up a case and got out of the car. "He's a human being... sort of... he might listen."

"Good luck, man. Hey, here." Luis opened a paper bag and pulled out a sandwich in a baggie. "Just in case."

"I'm not staying for lunch."

"It's not lunch. It's jelly bread. You know, in case you need some ants."

"Thanks, Luis. I'm sure I'll be fine. They never did catch me breaking house arrest. There's no reason to hold me..." Scott took a step away from the car, and then turned back. "What the hell. Gimme." He took the sandwich.

It didn't take as much convincing as Scott had expected before the warden agreed. There were conditions, of course, but nothing beyond what he'd expected. He waited while the warden did paperwork, and consulted with higher ups, made up an announcement to go over the PA in the whole prison, and finally assigned two guards to go with Scott, to open doors. And to make sure Scott didn't get into trouble. Probably for his own good, and not as if the warden didn't trust him. Probably.

Scott's skin crawled at first, but then he got used to the sensation of all that metal and cement pressing on his nerves, and the cold, harsh sounds with nothing to soften the clang of metal and the stomp of hard shoes, and the smell of so many years of misery... ok, no, he didn't get used to it, but he was a hero now, he could suck it up and do the job.

"Hi, guys," Scott said when they stopped at the first cell block. "So, the way this works-- everyone in a cell has to agree to it. If you agree, come up to the front of the bars and I'll do... the thing." Hank had explained it to him over the phone from Washington D.C. where he was attending some kind of tree festival?, and then Hope had reexplained it, until Scott was about 95% sure he wasn't going to put it in reverse and wind up with Godzilla VS San Quentin.

"I don wanna be an ant!" One prisoner shouted. "The rats will eat me!"

Other prisoners took up cries of protest. After the noise died down, Scott waved at the nearest cell. "The warden doesn't want anyone small enough to fit through the bars, right? I'm setting it for, like, cats. Big, strong tomcat size."

After some grumbling, most prisoners agreed that they'd be shrunk to cat size so they could maintain a six foot social distancing space between them and their cellmates. 

Hope had already adjusted the machine so it would shrink just people and their clothes directly in front of it, so he turned it on and walked up the cell block, carefully shutting it down when he passed the few prisoners who'd opted out.

"HEY!" Peachy squeaked at Scott after he was cat-sized. "How the hell am I supposed to reach the toilet?"

Scott looked at the regulation height commode, and the no longer regulation height convict. "Well, you just..." He looked at the guards for moral support. "Aim high?"

**Author's Note:**

> (360 degree view- use the control at the top) of a San Quentin cell in 2019.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd_MK_t8hfY
> 
> I suspect the prisoners will just have to figure things out for themselves. It's....um... a shitty situation, I don't blame Peachy for being pissed off.


End file.
